Woman of a Thousand Secrets
by Barbara Wood

    WOMAN OF A THOUSAND SECRETS by Barbara Wood
    Category:  Fantasy
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  11/1/08
    Publisher:  Severn House
    Reviewed by:  Amber Gibson
    Rating:  4 Stars


    WOMAN OF A THOUSAND SECRETS is a saga of one woman's journey in the New World, long before the
    Conquistadors' time.

    Tonina, delivered to Pearl Island as a baby by dolphin spirits, considers Pearl Island her home, though she has always
    been an outsider. As much as she wishes she could fit in with the Islanders, there has always been something different
    about her, and the time has come for her to leave Pearl Island and find her own people.

    Tonina's adoptive grandparents, Guama and Huracan, devise a scheme to convince Tonina to leave the island. They
    tell her that Huracan has an awful sickness that can only be cured by a mysterious red flower with magical healing
    properties. Immediately, Tonina sees it as her duty to find this red flower and bring it back to Pearl Island, curing
    Huracan, a man who has loved her all her life and given her a home.

    While her journey is perilous and Tonina encounters villains and treachery along her way, she also finds friends and
    companions that she grows to love. From Prince Balám, an embittered ballplayer who has lost everything in life, to
    One-Eye, an unscrupulous dwarf who ends up falling a little bit in love with the naïve and pure Tonina, every
    character is memorable and exceptionally developed.

    Perhaps most significantly, she meets Kaan, a Mayan ballplayer who is a hero of the games, regarded more highly
    than a king or holy man. Since Tonina and Kaan first laid eyes on each other, there has been a strange bond between
    the two. Struggle as they might to fight their feelings for each other, their futures are inexplicably intertwined. Both
    must fulfill a quest that has been thrust upon them – Tonina to find the ever-elusive red healing flower, and Kaan, to
    complete a pilgrimage to Teotihuacan to pray for his wife's soul.

    Balám proves to be an unworthy adversary for the ever noble Kaan and Tonina, and occasionally the twists and turns
    in plot bog down the pace of the story as opposed to enhancing the mystery and suspense. However, overall
    WOMAN OF A THOUSAND SECRETS is a tale of honor worth reading.

    In a superstitious world where destiny is determined by the gods and any bad luck is evidence that the gods are
    unhappy, the Mayans spend the majority of their time appeasing the gods, to ensure a peaceful afterlife. Barbara
    Wood crafts an extravagant world of love and deceit, mixing history and fantasy to create a story of the same epic
    proportions as LORD OF THE RINGS.